As most of you know, this blog reflects a passion for classic literature–in particular, my love for the 19th and early 20th centuries knows no bounds. Every once in awhile, though, I read a review on someone’s blog of a more modern novel that for whatever reason piques my interest. When I read Sandra’s (A …
Category: Historical Fiction
Mistress of the Art of Death, Ariana Franklin (2007)
Quickly she knelt and asked the dead beyond the door to forgive her for handling their remains. She asked to be reminded not to forget the respect she owed them. “Permit your flesh and bone to tell me what your voices cannot.” It is the year 1170. The city of Cambridge is tense. Four young …
Continue reading Mistress of the Art of Death, Ariana Franklin (2007)
The Witches of New York, Ami McKay
t is 1880 and New York City tea shop owners Eleanor St. Clair and Adelaide Thom are doing a brisk business at their shop, Tea and Sympathy. Eleanor, a hereditary witch with a sympathetic ear makes potions, curative teas and spells that give comfort and insight to the women who come to her for advice. …
Fever 1793, Laurie Halse Anderson
I didn’t run from the redcoats, and I won’t run from a dockside miasma. What is wrong with people…We suffered all kinds of disease in our youth, but folks were sensible. They didn’t squall like children and hide in the woods. Captain William Farnsworth Cook, Pennsylvania Fifth Regiment. Fever 1793, is a compelling historical novel …
Radio Girls, Sarah-Jane Stratford (2016)
I noticed the beautiful cover first, I admit. Reading the back, I wasn’t certain that a book on the early years of the BBC when it was radio would be of interest. What I found was a book so finely researched and a story with such exciting and surprising plot lines, I couldn’t put it …
The Wonder, Emma Donoghue (2016)
Anna O’Donnell claims—or rather her parents claim—that she hasn’t taken food since her eleventh birthday…She simply doesn’t eat. You mean no solids? No sustenance of any kind…but clear water. When I first heard about Emma Donoghue’s The Wonder, it reminded me of a book I read in college called, Holy Feast and Holy Fast: The …
Classic Laurie 